Asking For Trouble (34 page)

"Let's eat and then we'll go see what's in
there," Beau said and started opening cans and putting food out on
the plate. He took the knife out of his boot and sliced up the
Spam. Jazzie took the second plate and filled it for Carlos, then
brought it to him, before she sat at the table with Beau and
munched off of his plate.

"If Susan and Cole don't make it back before
Gabe gets here with the cavalry, what are we going to do?" Jazzie
asked curiously.

"We'll have to hover around and find them
somehow. We're not leaving them behind, that's for sure," Beau told
her.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

After they ate, Beau and Jazzie left the
cabin with the lantern and a butter knife to go and pop the lock on
the trunk of the sedan. Beau had resisted, but Jazzie insisted that
he put the body armor back on, before they left the cabin. With the
people they were dealing with, Jazzie knew they could show up
anytime, and anywhere, and she wanted him to be safe. He'd come too
close to dying on her. If this was the danger he faced every day,
she didn't know if her nerves could handle a relationship with him.
She'd live in a constant state of fear he wasn't coming home.

"What's going on in that beautiful head of
yours?" Beau asked and shined the lantern on her face. "You're
frowning."

"Nothing, really...I just want to be out of
here," Jazzie told him evasively. Now wasn't the time to have a
conversation about his chosen profession. His knowledge and
training for that job was what was keeping her alive.

They walked until they found the car hidden
in a break in the trees, and Beau set the lantern on the trunk, but
instead of going to work on the lock, he pulled her to him, and she
tiptoed, then slid her hands up his chest to circle his neck.
Beau's hands moved to her butt and he lifted her up against him as
his mouth captured hers in a hungry kiss. Lightning bolts of desire
shot through her core, and Jazzie moaned and pressed against him.
She could feel his hardness pressing against her and ground her
hips against him.

Beau growled and lifted her higher, and
Jazzie wrapped her legs around his waist. Turning toward the car,
he pushed her against the door and feasted on her mouth, rotating
his hips so he hit just the right spot to ratchet up the tension
building inside of her. Jazzie whimpered and sucked his bottom lip
into her mouth, then ran her tongue over it. With a nip, she let it
go and he moaned, then kissed her cheek and her ear, them moved his
talented lips down her throat, where he sucked a spot on her neck
that sent her newly discovered libido into overdrive.

Bands of heated need weaved through her
system, then started converging together at her core. Jazzie knew
she was about to climax, and she didn't want to do that without him
this time. "No!" she told him and pushed away from his chest, her
breathing erratic.

Beau groaned and gritted his teeth, his face
was flushed and his breathing was just as sketchy as her own. His
passion glazed eyes bored into hers and he asked with frustration,
"You don't want this?" then slid her down his body to stand.

"I don't want to come without you this
time...I want you inside of me, Beau," she told him shyly then
stroked him through his jeans.

"I don't have any condoms," he said with
disgust.

"I don't care, I'm due in the next day or
two, so we should be safe," she told him.

Beau hesitated, his face a twisted mask of
warring emotions. "I'm clean Jazzie, I have to get yearly physicals
and just had one, but I don't want to get you pregnant, are you
sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure..." she told him, and she
was. She was sure she loved him, and she was damned sure she wanted
him,
now
.

"I don't want kids, Jazz...I decided that a
while back," he told her and grimaced.

In Jazzie's opinion, Beau deciding to never
be a father would be a damned waste. He'd been so good with Lucy
and Robbie when they were in trouble, he had a lot of love to give,
if he just figured out how to express it. Now was not the time to
try and convince him, though. "I don't want to talk about this
right now, Beau...I want you to love me."

He stepped forward and reached a hand down
to shove her underwear aside, then he dipped a finger inside of
her, and groaned, "You're so damned wet.."

"I don't know what it is, but I've been so
damned turned on since that car chase, I can't sit still," she
admitted with a short laugh.

"Adrenaline will do that to you...guys
especially," he told her and moved his fingers to massage her
center.

Jazzie's train of thought completely
derailed, all she could focus on was the fire he was starting
inside of her. Breathlessly, she reached for his zipper tab and
slid it down, then pushed her hand inside to hold him and he sucked
in a sharp breath. "Please, Beau...I need you, now" she begged.

Beau hooked his thumbs in the elastic at the
side of her hips and shoved her panties down, letting them drop to
the ground, then he pushed his jeans and boxers down and then
claimed her mouth in a needy kiss. Lifting the hem of the shirt she
was wearing, he kneaded her ass cheeks while he kissed her, sending
flames licking their way up her spine. She pressed harder against
him and rotated her hips enticingly. Enough with the foreplay, she
wanted the main attraction, Jazzie was more than ready for it.

With a moan, Beau lifted her up then turned
and pinned her against the car again, lifting one of her legs high
around his waist. His eyes met hers, and he held her gaze then he
positioned himself at her opening. Jazzie held onto his shoulders
and her fingers dug into his skin in anticipation of him filling
her, satisfying the insistent ache inside of her. Beau eased her
down a little, then in one swift move he entered her and Jazzie
sucked in a sharp breath.

He pulled back a little, and asked with
concern, "Am I hurting you, baby?"

"No," she said with a strangled moan.
"Please, Beau..."

Beau shifted his hips and then surged
forward seating himself fully inside of her, then held her tight,
his fingers digging into her thighs, every muscle in his body
tense. Through clenched teeth, he grated, "I have never felt
anything so fucking incredible in my life."

Jazzie mewled her pleasure, and her inner
muscles clutched him, begging him to move. "Relax baby, I want this
to be good for you too," he told her and eased back then massaged
her clit and she dropped her chin and panted, "Oh, god, Beau--I'm
going to come...feels so good."

"That's it baby, ride with it, don't fight
it," he said and eased his hips back then pushed forward, burying
himself inside of her. Jazzie wailed then splintered around him,
her body trembling with the incredible sensations electrifying her
nerve endings.

With a groan, Beau grabbed her tight and
thrust inside of her deeply starting a rhythm that coaxed another
orgasm to build inside of her. He shortened his strokes and hit a
certain spot inside of her and Jazzie was slammed by another
intense wave of release. Beau lengthened his thrusts and then his
body tensed and he growled his release near her ear.

Breathing hard, Beau held her to him, and
kissed her cheek, then said reverently, "That was amazing,
sweetheart. Are you okay?"

"Better than okay," she said in a trembling
voice as he pulled away and lowered her to the ground, then took a
step back. Emotion curled up inside of Jazzie, and she had to tell
him again how much she cared about him, or she was afraid it would
consume her. She put her hand on his cheek and rubbed, "I love you,
Beau," she told him and felt the sting of tears behind her
eyes.

His mouth opened and closed several times
and he swallowed then his lips flattened into a tense line. "I'm
not real comfortable with hearing that Jazzie...those aren't
familiar words to me. My mother never said them to me, and although
my dad showed me, his was tough love, there was nothing soft about
it. I don't know how to do this, sugar," he told her then ran a
hand through his hair.

Jazzie dropped her hand from his face and
took a step back. "I didn't say it because I expected you to say it
back, Beau. I said them because I mean it. If and when you feel
that way about me, you tell me. If it doesn't happen, then..."

"Then you'll move on and I'll be the most
miserable sonofabitch on Earth," he said with misery in his tone,
then stepped forward to pull her into his arms. "The lake house
incident showed me that, almost losing you tonight showed me that."
he told her.

"I'm not in a hurry..." she mumbled against
the hard vest covering his chest.

"Eventually, you'll get tired of waiting for
me, and I'll lose you..." he said sadly and his arms closed around
her like steel bands.

"Is that what happened with Jenny?" Jazzie
asked him softly thinking about the beautiful doctor she'd met at
the hospital, the woman who had been his fiancé.

Beau pulled back from her and refastened his
clothes, and she bent down and grabbed her underwear. It didn't
look like he was going to answer her for a while, and sadness
filled her heart, because maybe he was right, and she would get
tired of waiting. Especially if he refused to talk about it.

"That was part of the problem...a big part.
The other was that my mother caught her in my father's study
kissing him, and told me on her deathbed. I confronted both of
them, and neither would talk about it. Jenny just left me...and my
dad just said it wasn't what I thought. I left the ranch the day
after the funeral, and haven't been back since."

"He's your family, maybe you should forgive
him..." Jazzie told him gently. "Anger will eat you up inside."

He huffed out a breath then told her, "My
mother also told me on her deathbed that I had a brother and sister
in Arizona that she'd abandoned when she was pregnant with me...and
that Ben Bowman wasn't really my father. He knew and never told me,
and neither did she. That's something I can't forgive him for. It
took me two years to find Gabe and Sabrina, and then it was only a
fluke that I did."

Anger clutched her heart and Jazzie shook
her head then whistled, "It sounds like your mother was a real
piece of work. I'm glad that I'll never meet her, because I have a
feeling I'd have wanted to claw her eyes out."

Beau chuckled, then said, "That is something
I would have paid to see...she was younger than my dad, a trophy
wife. She was there for the money, but he actually loved her, I
think, although I never heard him say the words to her."

"Never?" Jazzie asked incredulously. Her
parents made sure they said the words daily, and told their
children of their love daily as well. You never knew when something
would happen, and you wouldn't have the chance to say them
again.

"Never," Beau told her flatly, then it
looked like he was closing the subject, because he picked up the
butter knife and handed her the lantern. "Hold this so I can see
the lock."

Jazzie held the light at the right angle,
and Beau went to work on the trunk lock. After a few curses and
scraped knuckles, the lock broke and he pulled open the lid of the
trunk. She walked closer and shined the light inside and gapsed.
Inside, there was a whole arsenal of weapons and ammunition, a
first aid kit, a tool box and some other gear.

"Holy shit, and here we were worried about
not being able to protect ourselves. Looks like Hanson was making
sure he was well prepared. Beau leaned in and pulled out each item,
looked it over, then leaned it against the bumper. He pulled out a
folded shiny silver blanket of some sort, then shook it open. "This
should work for our signal. I'll just climb up on the roof and tack
it down."

"Looks like something from outer space," she
laughed.

"It's a medical blanket for injured people
in shock," Beau informed her then folded it back up. Once he had
all of the stuff sitting against the bumper, he crouched down and
looked it over one more time, then sorted it out. "We'll probably
have to make a couple of trips to get this stuff to the
cabin..."

"I can help," she offered then said, "The
sun's on its way up, so it's lighter than it was. I can see enough
to walk without the lantern."

"Yeah, we need to hurry, because Gabe and
June are probably on their way here," he said and took the lantern
then sat it on the ground. He handed her the large first aid kit
and a couple of boxes of ammo, then hefted five or six big guns in
one arm, and grabbed the blanket and tool box in the other. "Let's
go," he said and started toward the cabin.

While Beau went to attach the silver blanket
to the roof, Jazzie dug through the first aid kit and found elastic
bandages to wrap up Carlos's ribs, and some pain reliever that
would take the edge off of his pain. She wrapped the bandages as
tight as she could, and he said it helped. He was even sitting up
now, and eating some more of the Spam that Beau had sliced up for
them.

"Mystery meat, my favorite," he said with a
chuckle as he held a slice up and inspected it. He took a bite,
chewed once and cringed, then forced it down. "I wonder what the
nutritionist at my gym would say about this stuff."